Architects of Buddhist Leisure: Socially Disengaged Buddhism in Asia’s Museums, Monuments, and Amusement Parks

241 Pages·2016·2.75 MB·English

by  Justin Thomas McDaniel

(CONTINUED FROM FRONT FLAP)
Despite the ingenuity of lay and ordained Buddhism, often described as an austere reli-
visionaries like Wiriyaphan and Zhao and their gion that condemns desire, promotes denial,
colleagues Kenzo Tange, Chan-soo Park, Tadao M and idealizes the contemplative life, actually
BUDDHISM
C
Ando, and others discussed in this book, cre- has a thriving leisure culture in Asia. Creative
D
ators of Buddhist leisure sites often face prob- ARCHITECTURE A Architects of Buddhist Leisure religious improvisations designed by Buddhists
N
lems along the way. Parks and museums are I have been produced both within and outside
ANTHROPOLOGY E
L
complex adaptive systems that are changed of monasteries across the region—in Nepal,
and influenced by budgets, available materials, Japan, Korea, Macau, Hong Kong, Singapore,
local and global economic conditions, and Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. Justin McDaniel
visitors. Architects must often compromise looks at the growth of Asia’s culture of Buddhist
and settle at local optima, and no matter what leisure—what he calls “socially disengaged
“In this enjoyable book, Justin McDaniel once again questions A
they intend, their buildings will develop lives the overemphasis on authenticity in Buddhist studies and opts r Buddhism”—through a study of architects
c
of their own. Provocative and theoretically to look at Buddhism in people’s everyday lives, placing it in local h responsible for monuments, museums, amuse-
innovative, Architects of Buddhist Leisure asks contexts. Architects of Buddhist Leisure will ultimately persuade it ment parks, and other sites. In conversation
e
readers to question the very category of readers to join McDaniel in asking what makes Buddhism so with noted theorists of material and visual
c
“religious” architecture. It challenges current compelling and to marvel at the far-reaching boundlessness t culture and anthropologists of art, McDaniel
s
methodological approaches in religious stud- of the question.” o argues that such sites highlight the importance
ies and speaks to a broad audience interested —YOKO HAYAMI, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University f of public, leisure, and spectacle culture from a

B
in modern art, architecture, religion, anthro- Buddhist perspective and illustrate how “secu-
u
pology, and material culture. “Clearly a scholar with very broad interests and an intimate d lar” and “religious,” “public” and “private,” are in
knowledge of Buddhism over a long period, Justin McDaniel d many ways false binaries. Moreover, places like
h
has succeeded in narrating the complex story of Buddhist leisure i Lek Wiriyaphan’s Sanctuary of Truth in Thailand,
s
JUSTIN THOMAS MCDANIEL is professor space throughout modern Asia in a way that provokes each of t Suối Tiên Amusement Park in Saigon, and Shi
of Buddhist studies and chair of the Depart- us to reexamine the fleeting and fragmented glances at places L Fa Zhao’s multilevel museum/ritual space/tea
ment of Religious Studies at the University we have encountered but haven’t really understood.” ei house in Singapore reflect a growing Buddhist
s
of Pennsylvania. —RONALD G. KNAPP, State University of New York at New Paltz u ecumenism built through repetitive affective
r
e encounters instead of didactic sermons and
sectarian developments. They present differ-
Socially Disengaged
ent Buddhist traditions, images, and aesthetic
Buddhism in Asia’s expressions as united but not uniform, collected
Museums, Monuments, but not concise: Together they form a gather-
JACKET PHOTOGRAPHS: (front) Giant Seated Buddha at Wat Muang, Ang Thong, and Amusement Parks ing, not a movement.
Thailand; (spine) Nagoya Daibutsu at Tōgan-ji Monastery, Nagoya.
ISBN 978-0-8248-6598-6
9 0 0 00
Justin Thomas McDaniel
UNIVERSITY OF
9 780824 8 65986
HAWAI‘I PRESS
www.uhpress.hawaii.edu
HONOLULU, HAWAI‘I (CONTINUED ON BACK FLAP)
Architects of Buddhist Leisure
Con temporary Buddhism
MARK M. ROWE, SERIES EDITOR
Architects of Buddhist Leisure: Socially Disengaged
Buddhism in Asia’s Museums, Monuments, and
Amusement Parks
Justin Thomas McDaniel
Architects of Buddhist Leisure
Socially Disengaged Buddhism
in Asia’s Museums, Monuments,
and Amusement Parks
Justin Thomas McDaniel
UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I PRESS
HONOLULU
© 2017 University of Hawai‘i Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of Amer i ca
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: McDaniel, Justin, author.
Title: Architects of Buddhist leisure : socially disengaged Buddhism in Asia’s
museums, monuments, and amusement parks / Justin Thomas McDaniel.
Other titles: Contemporary Buddhism.
Description: Honolulu : University of Hawai‘i Press, [2017] | Series:
Contemporary Buddhism | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016034121 | ISBN 9780824865986 (hardcover ; alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Architecture and recreation—Asia. | Buddhist architecture—
Asia. | Tange, Kenzo, 1913-2005. | Lek Wiriyaphan. | Fazhao, Shi.
Classification: LCC NA2543.R43 M39 2017 | DDC 725/.76095—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016034121
University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid- free paper and meet
the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Council on Library
Resources.
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support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a
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the public good. The open-access ISBN for this book is 978-0-8248-7440-7.
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For details, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
Cover art: (front) Giant Seated Buddha at Wat Muang, Ang Thong, Thailand.
For Christine, Henry, and Jane
Even in the time when as yet
I had no certain knowledge of her
She sprang from the nest, a young crow,
Whose fi rst fl ight circled the forest.
I know now how then she showed me
Her mind, reaching out to the horizon,
She close above the tree tops.
I saw her eyes straining at the new distance
And as the woods fell from her fl ying
Likewise they fell from me as I followed . . .
FROM WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS’S THE WANDERER (1914)

Contents
ix Series Editor’s Preface
xi Acknowle dgments
1 INTRODUCTION
30 CHAPTER ONE
MONUMENTS AND METABOLISM: Kenzo Tange
and the Attempts to Bring New Architecture
to Buddhism’s Oldest Site
82 CHAPTER TWO
ECUMENICAL PARKS AND COSMOLOGICAL GARDENS:
Braphai and Lek Wiriyaphan and Buddhist
Spectacle Culture
131 CHAPTER THREE
BUDDHIST MUSEUMS AND CURIO CABINETS: Shi Fa
Zhao and Ecumenism without an Agenda
162 CONCLUSIONS AND COMPARISONS
177 Notes
205 Bibliography
215 Index

Series Editor’s Preface
IT IS A DISTINCT PLEASURE to be able to introduce the fi rst book in the new
Contemporary Buddhism series from University of Hawai‛i Press. Following
in the groundbreaking steps of George Tanabe’s Topics in Contemporary
Buddhism, this series will continue to deliver the fi nest narratives and analy-
ses of doctrine, institutions, personalities, ritual, gender, politics, econom-
ics, performance, and art in any cultural area of the Buddhist world today.
The study of contemporary Buddhism has emerged as a vital and
distinct fi eld in Buddhist studies. Primarily ethnographic and sociological to
date, the fi eld is now expanding to include insights from political, material,
and leisure studies. Justin McDaniel’s pioneering exploration of Buddhist lei-
sure activity at monuments, parks, and museums, which he evocatively calls
“socially disengaged Buddhism,” represents a signifi cant step in opening up
new understandings of how Buddhism is actually encountered in the world—
recreationally as much as ritually. This study is global and translocal in scope,
yet intimate and personal in tone. In a fascinating shift from his earlier work
on ritual, procedures, and pedagogy, McDaniel wants us to consider the “joys
of Buddhists—the sensuous, entertaining, and beautiful aspects of Buddhist
life” that can often be overlooked in attempts to get at “actual Buddhism.”
This aff ective and aesthetic turn toward what he calls the “total experience of
contemporary Buddhism” delineates an exciting new strand of Buddhist stud-
ies, one that fi rmly embeds Buddhist leisure within the realm of Buddhist
learning and thus continues the necessary work of breaking down arbitrary
distinctions between the secular and the religious.
ix